What I believe:
- When faced with two approximately equal options, it's almost always better to resist inertia and choose the option that's harder, that's outside your comfort zone, or that you've never tried before.
- Most people live almost their entire lives on autopilot, being pushed around by their genes, government, culture/advertising/media etc., letting things happen to them rather than taking control, and this is a tragedy because they have the ability to "wake up" if they want to.
- Existence, life, intelligence, and consciousness are miraculous gifts that we are designed not to appreciate, but are able to with effort.
- Self-determination must precede self-expression, because without self-determination there is no self to express.
- Incredibly cool things are going to happen in the next hundred years and beyond, as long as humanity doesn't self-destruct.
- It is very likely that our universe was designed for the ascent of intelligent life, and intelligent life far superior to ours almost certainly exists elsewhere in our universe.
- I have not yet determined whether the meaning and purpose of life must be discovered or created, but hope to have an answer soon.
- Everyone's life has a purpose. (Yours might simply be to serve as a cautionary tale for others.)
Likes:
- travel (I like the idea of filling in a two-dimensional shape on a map with three-dimensional facts, feelings, and experiences).
- spontaneity, adventure, summer, color.
- honesty, sincerity, truth, compassion, joy, awe.
- myself.
- capitalism, entrepreneurship, investment, reciprocal altruism, venture philanthropy.
- consciousness (qualia, self-awareness, altered states, lucid dreaming)
- beauty, both subjective (Charlize Theron, Jessica Alba, smiles that make you melt) and objective (nature, life, truth)
- sports (rollerblading, snowboarding, racquetball, squash, tennis, golf).
- games (board games, poker, foosball, pool, frisbee golf, chess, photo hunt, puzzles, cryptic crosswords, inventing new games).
- humor (Jerry Seinfeld, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Jim Carrey, Bill Maher).
- introspection, asking one extra "why", deep thinking about big ideas.
- learning how to live (paradise engineering, practical normativity, higher-order desires, self-determination and self-expression, free will, teleology, meaning, longevity).
- socializing, meeting new people.
- being unique, doing the different thing.
- rhythms, patterns, connections.
- science, technology, physics, cosmology, evolution and evolutionary psychology, boundless optimism, rational spirituality, accelerating progress, transhumanism, nanotechnology, the anthropic principle, the biocosm hypothesis.
Dislikes:
- violence, guns, fighting, boxing, hunting, hatred, suffering, exploitation, injustice, vulgarity, disrespect.
- racism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, jingoism.
- pretense, mindless adherence to tradition, materialism, conspicuous consumption, people who try to impress others.
- being "normal".
- superstition, astrology, fairy tales, deception, plastic flowers, propaganda, proselytizing, the naturalistic fallacy, the fine print, product placement, political correctness, cultural relativism, postmodernism.
- waiting, spam, taxes, wasting food, inertia, cigarette smoking, tattoos.
Things I find myself quoting a lot:
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." - Henry David Thoreau
"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates
"All humanity is sick. I come therefore to you as a physician who has diagnosed this universal disease and is prepared to cure it." - Buddha
"The most advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke
"Those who fear the facts will forever discredit the fact finders." - Daniel Dennett
"He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
"Fight the Power" - Public Enemy
'Inconceivable!' - guy from The Princess Bride
"Get out!" - Elaine Benes
"So, do you like… stuff?" - Ralph Wiggum
"How about that local sports team?"- C. Montgomery Burns
People I like:
Although my interests are diverse, my current priority is to get all the "big questions" about life answered and am looking for open-minded, smart people who share this desire. I'd love to hear from you...
- ...if you believe what I believe and think we can help each other learn more, or if you think I'm wrong and are confident that you can persuade me of it.
- ...if you share my desire to discover and escape from the various forms of bondage people are subjected to, especially nature/genes and environment/culture/memes.
- ...if you are happy most of the time and have an overall attitude of optimism about your future and the future of humanity.
- ...if you have created a "Things I Wanna Do Before I Die" list and are making good progress with it.
- ...if you believe there's something bigger than or outside of the visible universe, and don't know what it is, but enjoy trying to figure it out and think it might be possible to discover.
- ...if you make a point of including in every day some laughter, some compassion, and some quiet reflection.
- ...if you have difficulty finding people who can challenge you intellectually but don't take themselves too seriously.
Favorite Books:
On Not Knowing How To Live (Allen Wheelis)
Consciousness: An Introduction (Susan Blackmore)
Nonzero (Robert Wright)
The Meanings of Life (Roy Baumeister)
How the Mind Works, Blank Slate (Steven Pinker)
The Extended Phenotype (Richard Dawkins)
The Mind's I (Dennett, Hofstadter)
The Hedonistic Imperative (David Pearce)
anything Nick Bostrom writes
America: The Book (The Daily Show)
Curious George and the Electrified Fence
And now, as a reward for making it this far:
- A couple of hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls 911. He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: "Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: "OK, now what?"
- A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: "That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!" The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: "The driver just insulted me!" The man says: "You go right up there and tell him off - go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you."
- Q: What did Buddha say to the hot dog vendor? A: Make me one with everything.
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